Author Archive
How A Foodnut Celebrates the Royal Wedding
April 30, 2011 | 
Author 
- TV and Tea- Almost as Good As Being There?
Scones and chicken and egg finger sandwiches purchased from The Tea Garden in Valencia.
Open faced sandwiches, homemade. Cream cheese with cucumber and tiny green onions,
and cream cheese and salmon with dill. All very proper. Opps, did I mention the English
Breakfast Twinnings tea and the champagne with Chambord and fresh raspberry garnish?
Posted in 
More Comfort Food-Mexican Chicken Casserole
So the core foodnuts had an Academy Awards Night last week, and I made my Mexican Chicken Casserole. One pound of cheese for 7 people? But of course it was great!!! And I won the pool too. Be warned- this is not gourmet food. It has actual cans of soup like your grandmother used to use!!
Mexican Chicken Casserole
4-6 chicken breast, cooked and cut or shredded (I boil mine in water for 20 min)
12 corn tortillas, medium or large
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
sliced olives, or mushrooms, or onions- 1 or 2 cups
14-16 oz green chile salsa- mild
1 lb cheddar cheese- shredded
Cut torillas into 1 inch strips. Mix soups, milk, salsa, olives/mushrooms/onion.
Grease large shallow casserole dish. Add 2 Tbls water. Place ½ torilla strips covering bottom. Cover with ½ the chicken and then ½ the sauce. Repeat layers. Top with the cheese. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours. Remove from fridge and let sit 1 hour before baking.
Cover with tinfoil and Bake at 350 for 1 ½ hours. Remove the tinfoil for the last 45 minutes.
Minestrone Genovese
Genoa, Italy
This is just a fabulous soup, and worth a little effort.
Buy a container of basil pesto from the deli section, fresh, not canned. 6-8 oz
For the soup:
3 T olive oil
¼ lb spinach washed and coarsely chopped
¼ lb beet greens washed and coarsely chopped
¼ lb dry lima beans, soaked for an hour in water, then drained
½ savoy or other cabbage coarsely shredded
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 T or more chopped onion
1 leek, white part only, cleaned and sliced
2 t. salt, or chicken bouillon for 8 cups water I use “Better Than Bouillon” a paste
½ t. pepper
½ lb linguine broken into 1 inch pieces
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the spinach, beet greens, soaked lima beans, cabbage, potatoes, chopped onion, leek, and bouillon or salt, and pepper. Stir and cook briefly 2-3 minutes. Cover with the 8 cups water and simmer gently covered for 1 ½ hours. Raise the heat, bring to a rolling boil, and break the pasta into the soup, and cook until just cooked according to package directions. Taste, adjust seasoning.
Blend in the pesto with a wire whisk, and cook for a minute to blend flavors. Serve with shredded parmesan cheese.
Perfect Pasta Summer Dinner Salad
Hey, its almost August. Time for a cool meal. I invented this salad years ago by looking at a pasta salad in a deli. I figured I could do it better and cheaper. It is a killer salad and I have lots of compliments over the years to prove it too. It is really delicious and is a full meal. Let me know how it works for you.
Perfect Pasta Salad
Corkscrew pasta, 1 ½ lg pkg, cooked and drained, (about 12 oz)
Sweet, spicy uncooked Italian sausage, 1 pkg or 5 sausages, casings removed, fried and crumbled into small pieces(may need oil in the pan first)
Ham strips (optional, amount to taste)
Cherry tomatoes, 1-2 cups
Marinated artichoke hearts, drained (2 lg jars)
Red Onion ½, chopped
Broccoli heads, 2-3 cups- bite sized pieces, steamed only til crisp
Fresh basil coarsely chopped, amount to taste (try 1/2 cup)
Olives, drained, 1 can
Feta cheese, original or traditional, buy chunk but crumble, 1 pkg
Salt and Pepper to taste
Good Seasons packaged salad seasoning, Zesty or regular Italian, 2 packages
All these ingredient amounts can be adjusted to your own taste. Prepare the ingredients as directed, and mix all but the dressing in large salad bowl. Make both packages of dressing separately according to directions on package (I use white wine vinegar and corn or canola oil. Olive oil is too strong).
Toss salad with one made package of the dressing. You might need to use a little of the second batch of the dressing if it seems too dry, though it should be lightly dressed.
Chill several hours to develop flavors, tossing a couple times.
Serve salad in the bowl for guests to help themselves, and have the rest of the dressing on the side to drizzle over the top.
Serves 10-12 hearty eaters, and maybe more.
Dutch Onion Soup and Filet of Beef Sandwiches
The core Foodnuts met last week and had a great foodie evening. It is raining like crazy here in Southern Cal right now, so what could be better than soup and sandwich, only upgraded to divine gourmet.. the meal was followed by a great glass of port, and –are you ready? Girl Scout Cookies, as they are in season right now. We were so entranced with the food that we did not even take photos. I do have a couple nice shots of the leftovers though.
Here goes.
Dutch Onion Soup
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 55 Minutes
Makes: 6 servings
4 sweet onions, sliced
3 T vegetable oil
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
½ cups port wine
6 cups Wolfgang Puck Organic Beef-Flavored Broth
2 springs fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
¼ t. ground black pepper
12 slices French bread (1/2 in thick)
1 ½ cups grated Gouda cheese-hence the “Dutch”
Heat oil in 6 quart saucepot over medium high heat. Add onions and cook for 20 minutes or until golden brown, stirring often
Add celery and cook and stir for 3 min. Add port, broth, thyme, bay leaves, and pepper , stirring to scrape up browned bits from bottom of pot.
Reduce heat to low. Cook for 30 minutes. Remove thyme and bay leaves and adjust seasoning with salt. Heat broiler. Sprinkle bread with cheese Broil until cheese is melted. Put soup into 6 bowls, top with bread and any extra cheese.
The trick here is to get the filet for less than the $30.00 a pound at Whole Foods. Try Costco and ask ahead. We got it for $7.39 a pound.
Copyright 2005, Ina Garten. Delicious! My daughter made these for me one evening this summer and it was just wonderful! Didn’t include resting time of 20 minutes.
45 min | 20 min prep SERVES 4 ( We served 7!)- Louise
BEEF
- 2-3 lbs filet of beef, trimmed and tied
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room at temperature
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons fresh coarse ground black pepper
SAUCE
- 3/4 cup good mayonnaise (Hellmans)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon white prepared horseradish (or to taste)-Louise
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- kosher salt
FOR THE SANDWICH
- 1 loaf unsliced health bread or unsliced multi-grain bread (or french rolls or other hearty bread) -Louise
- arugula
- kosher salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- unsalted butter, at room temperature
- TO COOK THE BEEF:.
- Preheat oven to 500ºF.
- Place the beef on baking sheet and pat the outside dry with a paper towel.
- Mix the unsalted butter and mustards together in a small bowl and spread the mixture over the beef with your hands.
- Sprinkle evenly with the salt and pepper.
- Roast in the oven for exactly 22 minutes for rare and 25 minutes for medium-rare.
- Remove the beef from oven, cover lightly with aluminum foil, and allow it to rest at room tempearture for 20 minutes. Remove the strings and slice fillet thickly(personal preference, I like mine thin).
- SAUCE:.
- Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Serve at room temperature.
- TO MAKE THE SANDWICH:.
- Cut the bread into 1/4″ thick slices.
- Spread 4 of the slices thickly with the Mustard Horseradish Sauce.
- Top with slices of beef and arugula and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Spread 4 more slices of bread very lightly with butter and place butter side down, on top of the beef.
- Enjoy, they are divine!
| © 2009 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com |
Sorry- You had to be there--Make your own!!!
Tupperware Leftovers
Tags: 